Hi, I'm Elowen.

I lost my mom when I was five years old.

She passed from medical negligence. Septic shock that was missed and mismanaged, a death that should not have happened. My family won a wrongful death lawsuit, but no verdict gives you back the years.

What she left behind was almost nothing. A handful of photographs. Images so few I've worn them thin from looking, wishing more times than I can count that there were more.

That is why I became a photographer.

Not because I found a passion and followed it (although I always leaned toward the arts throughout my childhood and even attended art school for three years post-high school). Because I know, with a certainty most people are lucky enough to never have, what it means to lose someone and have almost no proof they were there. No record of how they laughed. No image of their hands. Nothing to pass down to the people who'll come after.

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My other path comes from the same place.

I'm a senior nursing student stepping into the ICU as a Registered Nurse this May. I chose critical care because I believe no family should go through what mine did. Because being at the bedside when it matters most is one of the few things I can actually do about the loss I carry.

I show up to that room the same way I show up with a camera: present, attentive, and deeply aware of what's at stake.

Both paths grew from the same roots: the people we love deserve to be witnessed. And the time we have with them is shorter than we ever expect.

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If you're here, I'm really glad you are.